How a Macedonian town became a 'fake news' epicentre

Jovan got a pair of Nike sneakers and went on holiday to Greece, his reward for having helped turn the small Macedonian town of Veles into an epicentre of ‘fake news’ during the 2016 US presidential race.

‘That's what the so-called fake news sites bought me,’ said the 20-year-old who did not want to reveal his last name.

‘I was earning about 200 euros ($230) a month... Only a few earn this kind of money,’ he told AFP in Veles, home to around 50,000 people.

Once a thriving industrial hub, Veles has suffered decline since the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and, like the rest of the country, now grapples with rampant youth unemployment and mass emigration.

But two years ago, a new source of income unexpectedly opened up when investors offered money to locals for producing news stories in support of Donald Trump who was campaigning to become the 45th president of the United States.

Hundreds of websites and Facebook pages started to come out of Veles servers with the sole aim of tarnishing Trump's Democrat opponents like Hillary Clinton or his predecessor Barack Obama.

The sites, many of which have since disappeared, distributed articles about Clinton's alleged racist remarks on Beyonce or fake statements, in which she allegedly praising Trump's honesty.

Jovan, a student at the Veles's Faculty of Technology, was recruited in 2016 by one of dozens of local investors engaged in a clickbait race.

His work consisted of retrieving articles published mainly on right wing US websites, such as Fox News or Breitbart News, and then ‘adapting them, changing them a little, putting in a catchy title’.